MIRAGE

"Mirage" is certainly Camel's magnum opus.

What a great album. Camel's second album is most definitely one of the best symphonic prog albums ever. Let me start saying how this is a truly "classic" prog album, with all the elements that define the genre such as the presence of suites, very frequent keyboards, interesting song titles and consequently lyrics, and a very low number of songs in the album. The five songs that form this album are all beautiful, some have a stronger feeling, some have calmer moments.

" Freefall" is the opener. I usually tend to prefer the first song of the album, but this my least favorite, possibly because I'm not crazy about Latimer's vocals in this particular piece, maybe because they sound kind of childish provocation. But it is still a good song,

" Supertwister" is a fantastic three minute piece based manly on flute, but the other instruments accompany it just as fine. Beautiful with a delicate melody( this sensation of fragility is given especially from the flute).

"Nimrodel" is the first of the two suites of the album. The first part is probably the best moment of the album, with a beautiful melody, too bad it ends almost immediately. There's a quite moving part after that, played a lot faster than before. The part after that is another beautiful part, mainly based on vocals and acoustic guitar. Finally, an awesome synth part comes in, totally mind blowing if you ask me. Probably the best Camel song ever.

"Earthrise" is a very nice song, very pretty in so many moments, especially in the beginning. It then is more rockish kind of, thanks to fast guitars and fast rhythm.

"Lady Fantasy" is the song everybody loves. I too love it with all my heart, but I'm not sure it can beat Nimrodel. After the intro, there is a beautiful guitar riff, immediately followed by another keyboard riff. After it gets a lot faster, with a nice guitar part. Many fantastic moments, one of the best suites ever made, and also a great closer.

Let me say as a conclusion that I really think it's a masterpiece of progressive rock,near perfection.

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